The Prologue begins with the factors the Nauru Constitutional Review Commission Report of 2007 identified as responsible for the Republic’s contemporary economic and political precarity. In a UNDP-funded constitutional referendum in 2010, the Nauruan community overwhelmingly rejected proposed amendments to Nauru’s 1968 Constitution that were designed to address those factors. The Prologue describes the author’s involvement in the referendum campaign, and introduces the history of Australian, British and German imperial interventions in the Pacific region, and Australia’s use of Nauru as a site for offshore processing of asylum seekers who arrive in Australian waters by sea.